Abstract

Level 1 Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array type-L band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data were acquired from ESA by the Landmap project and processed to produce greyscale 8 and 32-bit geotiff imagery for the UK and Republic of Ireland from 2007-2009. The UK data are projected onto the British National Grid whereas the Republic of Ireland data are projected onto the Irish National Grid. PALSAR is an active microwave sensor using L-band (2GHz) frequency and produces various products of different resolutions and performance. PALSAR data can be acquired during day or night, increasing the temporal coverage of data for a particular spatial extent. PALSAR is also unaffected by cloud cover allowing a better coverage of satellite data. PALSAR collects data in 4 different modes. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded Landmap service which ran from 2001 to July 2014 collected and hosted a large amount of earth observation data for the majority of the UK. After removal of JISC funding in 2013, the Landmap service is no longer operational, with the data now held at the NEODC.

Data collected and prepared by the Landmap team before a copy of the data were obtained by NEODC directly from Landmap.

File Format:

Data availability and file format

The data are available in geotiff format which can be opened in many earth observation image processing software including open/free software such as Erdas ER viewer and the freely available Basic ERS & Envisat (A)ATSR and Meris Toolbox (BEAM) or NEST (Next ESA SAR Toolbox). Geotiff files are TIFF files which have geographic metadata embedded as tags within the TIFF file. The geographic metadata can then be used to position the image in the correct location and geometry on the screen of a geographic information display. The data are split into the three modes acquired by Landmap (Fine Beam Single (FBS), Fine Beam Dual (FBD) and Polarimetric). The various polarisations can be determined from the filename:

HH - Horizontal polarisation transmitted, horizontal received.

VV - Vertical transmitted, vertical received

HV - Horizontal transmitted, vertical received

VH - Vertical transmitted, horizontal received

Specific products include 32 bit _geo GeoTiff, and 8 bit _geo_lia and _geo_ls_mask GeoTiffs. All the geotiff images are provided with GeoTiff World Files (.tfw) which are used to geo-reference images to an appropriate projection scheme.

More Information (under review)

Introduction

Level 1 Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array type-L band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data were acquired from ESA by the Landmap project and processed to produce greyscale 8 and 32-bit geotiff imagery for the UK and Republic of Ireland from 2007-2009. The UK data are projected onto the British National Grid whereas the Republic of Ireland data are projected onto the Irish National Grid.

PALSAR is an active microwave sensor using L-band (2GHz) frequency and produces various products of different resolutions and performance. PALSAR data can be acquired during day or night, increasing the temporal coverage of data for a particular spatial extent. PALSAR is also unaffected by cloud cover allowing a better coverage of satellite data.
PALSAR collects data in 4 different modes, with the following 3 available:

Polarimetric: Polarimetric data acquires all polarisation products (HH, HV, VH, and VV), however it does have a lower resolution than the fine beam modes.

FBS data is available for the majority of England and Scotland west of central London and east of Glasgow respectively, FBD for the majority of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and South-west England and Polarimetric for the majority of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England west of central London.

The data are available in geotiff format which can be opened in many earth observation image processing software including open/free software such as Erdas ER viewer and the freely available Basic ERS & Envisat (A)ATSR and Meris Toolbox (BEAM) or NEST (Next ESA SAR Toolbox). Geotiff files are TIFF files which have geographic metadata embedded as tags within the TIFF file. The geographic metadata can then be used to position the image in the correct location and geometry on the screen of a geographic information display. The data are split into the three modes acquired by Landmap (Fine Beam Single (FBS), Fine Beam Dual (FBD) and Polarimetric). The various polarisations can be determined from the filename:

HH - Horizontal polarisation transmitted, horizontal received.

VV - Vertical transmitted, vertical received

HV - Horizontal transmitted, vertical received

VH - Vertical transmitted, horizontal received

Specific products include 32 bit _geo GeoTiff, and 8 bit _geo_lia and _geo_ls_mask GeoTiffs. All the geotiff images are provided with GeoTiff World Files (.tfw) which are used to geo-reference images to an appropriate projection scheme.

Documentation and Links to further information and references

Software

Erdas ER viewer, available free of charge, can be used to open raster image formats such as TIFF, GeoTiff, IMG, ECW, ERS, ALG, DAT and many more, and is capable of handling large file sizes.

Basic ERS & Envisat (A) ATSR and Meris Toolbox (BEAM): BEAM is an open-source toolbox and development platform for viewing, analysing and processing of remote sensing raster data. Originally developed to facilitate the utilisation of image data from Envisat's optical instruments, BEAM now supports a growing number of other raster data formats such as GeoTIFF and NetCDF as well as data formats of other Earth Observation (EO) sensors such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), AVNIR, Polarised Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (PRISM) and Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS). Various data and algorithms are supported by dedicated extension plug-ins.

Links to further information

The Landmap project PALSAR website, this site may be offline soon after 1st August 2014 due to removal of JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) funding, see below for an archived version of ths site

Computation Element: 1

This computation involved: DETAILS NEEDED - COMPUTATION CREATED FOR SATELLITE COMPOSITE. deployed on Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) hosts the Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2), the Panchromatic Remote sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) and the Phased Array type-L band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR). The satellite, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was launched in 2006 and was active for 5 years. It has since lost power, but remains in orbit. It's mission included cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring and resource surveying.
&lt;div property="cedacat:introduction"&gt;
&lt;div class="introduction"&gt;Introduction&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) holds the &lt;a href="http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/neodc.nerc.ac.uk__ATOM__DPT_68bd974a-17f5-11e4-9375-00163e251233"&gt;Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2)&lt;/a&gt;, the Panchromatic Remote sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) and the &lt;a href="http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/neodc.nerc.ac.uk__ATOM__DPT_d29cb904-27b6-11e4-a0e1-00163e251233"&gt;Phased Array type-L band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR)&lt;/a&gt;.
The satellite, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was launched in 2006 and was active for 5 years. It has since lost power, but remains in orbit. It's mission included cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring and resource surveying. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;